ONLINE STANDOFF: A standoff involving the inner plumbing of the Web is slowing down Netflix’s streaming service, just as many subscribers try to stave off the winter gloom with season 2 of “House of Cards” and other shows. WSJ looks at how a long-simmering conflict between Netflix and Verizon Communications, along with other broadband providers, is heating up over how much Netflix streaming content broadband carriers will agree to carry without being paid additional fees. Netflix, a notorious bandwidth hog, says its average prime-time speeds dropped by 14% last month on Verizon’s fiber-optic FiOS service, reflecting strains on the infrastructure used to transfer the signals and the debate about who should shoulder the cost of upgrades. For now, at least, neither side is budging, meaning more spinning wheels on Netflix screens as subscribers wait for their videos to load.

SUCCESSION PLANS: John Malone has agreed to give the CEOs of Discovery Communications and Liberty Global the right of first refusal to acquire his voting stakes in those companies, in a development signalling the first of succession plans for his sprawling media empire, WSJ reports. (Malone owns around a roughly 29% stake in Discovery and 27% stake in Liberty Global.) That’s not to say that Malone, who is 72 and known as the architect of the major moves made by his companies, has any immediate plans to step away from his businesses. “Nothing is changing right now,” Mr. Malone said in a statement. Indeed, Malone has lately proved a prominent dealmaker and proponent of consolidation for the cable industry, as highlighted by the recent attempt by Liberty Media-backed Charter to acquire Time Warner Cable.

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